Alice Waters, the Farm-to-Table Movement, and the Edible Schoolyard Project

June 15, 2023

by Lisa DiCaprio

Alice Waters is a pioneer of the farm-to-table movement in the U.S. and the owner and executive chef of the world–renowned Chez Panisse [1] restaurant, which she opened in 1971 in Berkeley, California. Waters is the founder of the Chez Panisse Foundation and the Edible Schoolyard Project [2], a Vice-President of Slow Food International, and the author and co-author of 16 books. [3] In 1992, Waters became the first woman to receive a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef in America. Her advocacy and humanitarian awards include a 2008 Global Environmental Citizen Award and a 2014 National Humanities Medal presented by President Barack Obama. [4]

For over 50 years, Waters has advocated for the farm-to-table movement, which reconnects consumers with local and seasonal sources of food, supports small farms committed to organic and regenerative agriculture [5], and highlights the environmental and public health benefits of sustainable food production and consumption. This movement now encompasses a wide spectrum of practitioners and activists: chefs and restaurant owners, farmers and ranchers, consumers, educators, policymakers, and environmental organizations, such as the Sierra Club.

Waters dedicated her most recent book, We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto (Penguin Press, 2021), to Carlo Petrini who founded Slow Food in Italy in 1986 to protect local food traditions from a globalized fast food culture. [6] The Slow Food movement rapidly expanded globally. Slow Food International, formed in Paris in 1989 based on the principles of the Slow Food Manifesto written by Petrini, now comprises activists and organizations in over 160 countries, including Slow Food USA, which has 80 chapters. [7] In We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto, Waters defines fast food in this comprehensive way:

The statistics tell us that eighty-five million people in the United States eat from fast food restaurants on any given day-but I don’t think the definition of fast food begins and ends with restaurants like McDonald’s or Pizza Hut or Subway. I consider fast food to be any type of food that is grown with herbicides and pesticides, industrially mass-produced, and, most often, processed, or ultra-processed, with additives and preservatives. It could be the food on your grocery store’s shelves, or what you buy at the checkout of a convenience store, or what’s delivered right to your doorstep through a convenient delivery app. [8]

Mainstream food production and consumption, widely recognized as leading causes of climate change [9] and diet-related chronic diseases [10], are mainly post World War II phenomena. As Alice Waters writes in We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto:

I have watched our country’s transition from the victory gardens of World War II to the frozen foods of the 1950s; from the revolutionary activism of the 1960s to the fast food reign of the 1980s, 1990s, and beyond. My experiences from opening the restaurant to the establishment of the Edible Schoolyard Project have shown me over and over again how the power of food can change people’s lives–for better or for worse. Food can enhance our communities, humanize our institutions, and help heal and replenish the besieged environment. Or food can destroy our health and our planet. We are all still witnessing the corruption and degradation of our lives and our environment–in this country and around the world–caused by the industrial food system. [11]

The farm-to-table movement and Chez Panisse

Alice Waters attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, transferred to the University of California, Berkeley in 1964, and graduated in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in French Cultural Studies. (She focused on 1750 to 1850, which includes the French Revolution.) Waters’ farm-to-table advocacy was inspired by her participation in the political and social movements of the 1960’s, such as the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, which demonstrated how social change is achieved through collective action, and a 1965 junior year abroad in France where she obtained an appreciation for the locally grown and seasonal food sold in farmers’ markets and served in cafes and restaurants.

Since 1971, Chez Panisse has evolved from its original focus on French cuisine to an innovative California cuisine [12] and provided a model for how a restaurant can facilitate sustainable alternatives to how our food is sourced and prepared. The menu identifies the local farms and ranches from which the ingredients are obtained. The Chez Panisse website explains:

In pursuit of taste, Alice and the cooks of Chez Panisse ended up at the doorsteps of the small organic farmers who were growing flavorful heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables or raising heritage breeds of animals. Over time, the restaurant has built up a diverse network of these ethical local suppliers—ranchers, fishers, orchardists, foragers, farmers, and backyard gardeners—who practice regenerative agriculture and take care of the land.

The fifty-year anniversary of Chez Panisse was celebrated in 2021 as a milestone in the transformation of food culture in the U.S. In his article, “Happy 50th birthday to Chez Panisse, the Berkeley restaurant that launched farm-to-fork eating,” published in the July 14, 2021, issue of The Conversation, Paul Freedman wrote:

Waters asserted from the start that food from a more local, small-scale agricultural system wouldn’t just taste better – it also would improve lives and human relations. She has been an activist for causes ranging from school food to sustainability to climate change – always drawing connections between better-tasting food and social and environmental healing.

And she has pushed back against skeptics who say that eating locally and organically is affordable only for a small elite. Her response is that access to affordable, decent food from sustainable sources should not depend on wealth or social privilege, any more than decent medical care should be available only to the affluent. [13]

Although an exceptional variety of crops are grown in California [14], we can all advocate for organic and regenerative agriculture [15]; growing more food locally and regionally wherever it is feasible, such as within urban areas [16]; green markets [17] and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) [18]; government procurement policies to purchase food from local farmers and/or based on sustainability criteria [19]; replacing monoculture with crop diversification; and learning from various food traditions, including indigenous methods of agriculture [20]. Farmland can be protected from real estate development by supporting non-profit organizations such as the Trust for Public Land and the American Farmland Trust, which has an American Farmland Trust New York Regional Office that focuses on saving New York State farms and farmland. We can also access Local Harvest and Pick Your Own.org to learn about opportunities for picking local produce in locations throughout the U.S. (See New York U-Pick Farms - 2023 PickYourOwn.org and New York - Local Farm Markets.org to find a “local farmer’s market, roadside stand, or farm stand” in New York State.) Pick Your Own.org also provides instructions on How to Can, Freeze, Dry and Preserve Any Fruit or Vegetable at Home. [21]

The Edible Schoolyard Project and the Chez Panisse Foundation

Alice Waters established the first edible garden in 1995 on a one-acre vacant lot at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California attended by her daughter and located near Chez Panisse. A website for the Edible Schoolyard Project explains how Waters founded the project, which “began as an idea to transform the food experience at a public middle school in Berkeley, California. As the idea took shape, a coalition of educators, families, farmers, cooks, and artists joined the effort, working closely with students to create a flourishing garden and kitchen classroom.” [22]

In 1996, Waters commemorated the twenty-fifth anniversary of Chez Panisse by establishing the Chez Panisse Foundation. As its website explains: “The Foundation supports an educational program that uses food to nurture, educate, and empower youth. The Foundation envisions a public school curriculum that includes hands-on experiences in school kitchens, gardens, and lunchrooms, and that provides healthy, freshly prepared meals as part of each school day.” The four project sectors are: Edible Education, School Lunch Reform, Schools organic gardens, and Food, health, & environment. (The name of the Chez Panisse Foundation was changed to the Edible Schoolyard Project in 2011.)

Waters’ training at the International Montessori School in London and her experiences as a certified Montessori teacher informs how the Edible Schoolyard Project combines experiential and interdisciplinary academic learning in garden and kitchen classrooms. In a November 1, 2010 NourishLife video, “Alice Waters: Edible Education,” she explains:

We call it the Edible Schoolyard because this is a garden where you can reconnect yourself with the source of your food…What we are trying to do here at the Edible Schoolyard with edible education is to bring food into the context of nature and culture. That’s where all the beauty and meaning is. This is a universal idea – edible education. It connects the garden with the kitchen and the table and back to the garden again. I really think that this program needs to be in every school in the country…”

The Edible Schoolyard Berkeley offers free public tours and provides a model for schools throughout the U.S., as it comprises garden and kitchen classrooms and a support organization. The 2010 Edutopia video, The Edible Schoolyard Yields Seed-to-Table Learning, depicts how students learn about several subjects in the garden classroom, such as ecology, math, and science. In the kitchen classroom, their preparation of food includes discussions about various cultural traditions that inform food production and consumption within and outside of the U.S.

The Edible Schoolyard Project provides an online curriculum and resource library with free lessons plans on topics such as Your Ingredients, Exploring a Community Garden, Indigenous Agriculture: Intercropping, Practices of Organic Farming: Cover Crops, Growing Food From Scraps, Farmworker Conditions, and Planting Your Own Garden. You may subscribe to the Edible Schoolyard Project newsletter here. The website for Edible Schoolyard Training, which began in 2009 and is typically held on-site at the Edible Schoolyard Berkeley, states: “We train educators, gardeners, chefs, and advocates from all over the world to seed and grow edible education in their schools, cafeterias, and communities.” See, for example, the 2022 virtual summer training session recordings and resources.

Waters discussed the educational and environmental significance of the Edible Schoolyard Project in a November/December 2004 Sierra Magazine interview with Reed McManus, “‘I Call it a Delicious Revolution’: A famous restaurateur promotes reading, writing, and arugula.” She stated:

Food has been disconnected from culture and agriculture. The result is that everything is meant to be fast, cheap, and easy: Resources are infinite, labor should be cheap, food should be cheap. This whole set of values is destroying our agriculture and destroying our culture. The only way we’re going to reconnect people is through the public school system. It is our last truly democratic institution. If we have a curriculum that teaches slow-food values, that begins in kindergarten and goes through high school, we will be turning out environmentalists into the world.

The Edible Schoolyard Network formed in 2010 now “connects more than 5,800 programs from 53 U.S. states & territories as well as 75 countries around the world.” Edible Schoolyard Project websites provide general resources, the Edible Education Curricula, information on careers and training, and networking opportunities. To obtain updates on the Edible Schoolyard Project, you may sign up here.

Edible Schoolyard NYC, which was established in 2010, partners with several NYC public schools and aspires to bring an edible education to all NYC students. (For a video, see: About Edible Schoolyard NYC.) The Edible Schoolyard NYC Programs website states:

Edible Schoolyard NYC believes that all New York City students deserve access to an edible education — hands-on gardening and cooking classes as well as family and community engagement activities – that connect students to food, their communities and inspire them to create change in the world around them. We do this by partnering with NYC public schools to lead classes with their students and school community; supporting educators to implement food education in their classrooms; and advocating for long-term, sustainable changes for a better future for New York City.

Edible Schoolyard NYC Programs comprise Demonstration Schools and Network Schools. Edible Schoolyard NYC also provides resources, such as “a variety of teacher training workshops and customized school training throughout the year.” The professional development program “reaches 525 educators and administrators who in turn reach 394,350 students.” The Edible Schoolyard NYC: Our Impact website provides these statistics for the 2020 to 2021 school year: “3,500 students taught at direct service schools; 10 direct public school sites in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx; 2,800 attendees at our community programs; 2,178 kitchen and garden lessons taught; 12,997 food distributions to students and families; and 2,878 pounds of produce harvested in our school gardens.”

The Edible Schoolyard Project provides a variety of materials such as information on how to advocate for transforming school lunch programs. For example, the “What you need to know about school lunch“ website states: “In order to consider how your school or district might change school meals, you need to understand the big picture of how school meals are funded and the rules and regulations schools are required to meet.”

Recognizing the potential of public school lunches to transform our food system, the Edible Schoolyard Project launched Our Pledge to Public Education for Children & Farmers in 2018. The pledge comprises three main points:

“Provide a free sustainable school lunch for all children K-12
Buy food directly from farmers and ranchers who take care of the land and their workers
Teach students the values of nourishment, stewardship, and community”

As Alice Waters emphasizes in a statement on the pledge website: “If we change the criteria for purchasing all food in public schools, and buy directly from the farmers that are caring for the land regeneratively, we will address climate change and teach the next generation the values of nourishment, stewardship, and community.”

Educational initiatives in collaboration with the University of California

Alice Waters is collaborating with the University of California, which comprises ten campuses attended by almost 300,000 students, on several initiatives that combine experiential and academic learning.

To commemorate the 40-year anniversary of Chez Panisse in 2011, Waters initiated Edible Education 101 at UC Berkeley in partnership with the University of California – Berkeley. The course organizers are Alice Waters and William Rosenzweig, Faculty Co-Chair at the Berkeley Haas School of Business, Institute for Business & Social Impact. (See Alice Waters: We Are What We Eat for a July 15, 2022 Commonwealth Club of California conversation between Waters and Rosenzweig.) Their innovative “hybrid public lecture series and for-credit class” is intended for the general public and UC Berkeley undergraduate and graduate students. The classes are held at the Berkeley Haas School of Business on Wednesday evenings from 6:10 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. PST. The general course description states:

This uniquely UC Berkeley course, now in its eleventh year, teaches students about food innovation and entrepreneurship by exploring the future of food, its diverse systems and movements. Edible Education is a weekly lecture series that invites renowned experts—leading academics and practitioners—to campus to share their visions, research, and experiences about the food system and its critical role in our culture, well-being and survival.

A new edible education theme is developed for each course. Edible Education 101 at UC Berkeley provides the websites for courses from Spring 2018 to the present where you may access the course description, syllabus, materials, and free livestreamed class sessions, which are posted after each class. The “Explore Previous EE101 Courses” section located on the left-side of the Edible Education 101 at UC Berkeley home page lists the links to the videos of previous class sessions: Edible Education 101: Spring 2018, Spring 2019: Take Action, Spring 2020: Soil to Soul, Spring 2021: Seasons of Social Justice, and Spring 2022: Reimagining Eating In & Out. The Spring 2023: The Legacy and Impact of UC Berkeley’s Food Systems Changemakers course concluded on April 26, 2023 with a class session on The Future of Food. A new series of Edible Education 101 classes will be scheduled for Spring 2024. See also the 14 Edible Education 101 (2017) class videos, which begin with Edible Education 101 with Alice Waters: Course Overview and the Future of Edible Education. (These 14 videos do not appear on the main Edible Education 101 website.)

On July 1, 2014, at The Edible Schoolyard Berkeley, Alice Waters and former University of California President Janet Napolitano announced the UC Global Food Initiative, which “involves all 10 UC campuses, UC’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the UC Office of the President.” [24] In her statement at this event, Napolitano described the multifaceted and comprehensive nature of the UC Global Food Initiative, which encompasses interdisciplinary learning and scholarship, student engagement and fellowships, leveraging the University of California’s food purchasing power, research on sustainable agriculture, and policy advocacy at all levels of government. She stated:

…. Our goal is audacious, and it is far-reaching. It is our intent to do everything in our power to put the world on a pathway to feed itself in ways that are nutritious and sustainable.

In taking up this challenge, I would note that by the year 2025, one billion additional people will live on this already stressed planet. I would note also that today, as we stand here, a billion people — most of them in the developing world — suffer from chronic hunger or serious micronutrient deficiencies. Another 1/2 billion — primarily in the industrialized nations of the world — are obese. Put on top of that the increasing pressure on our natural resources, land and water, and you can see the magnitude of what we have before us.

Keep in mind, the issue of “food” is not just about what we eat. It’s about delivery systems. Climate issues. Population growth. Policy. All of these and more come into play when you begin to think about the colliding forces that shape the world’s food future.

While we are thinking globally, we know that there’s work to do right here at home. More than 16% of households in California experience limited access to food. Almost 16 million children across our nation live in food insecure households…

The Global Food Initiative will expand the UC tradition of innovative research.

In addition to agriculture, other disciplines will play a major role. Law, humanities, health, education, environmental studies—all will be integrated into the food research spectrum.

In my early time on all ten UC campuses, it became clear that some of the most exciting research often occurs when multiple disciplines come together around a single research topic. Multi-disciplinary research for this critical challenge is paramount.

And we will leverage this research to address public policy issues on sustainable production and distribution of healthy food at the state, national, and international levels...

The Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education at UC Davis in Sacramento was announced by Alice Waters and Gary S. May, the Chancellor of UC Davis, on January 16, 2020, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Edible Schoolyard Project and the 50th anniversary of Chez Panisse. As described on the Edible Schoolyard Project website, the Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education “will serve as a training center for K-12 educators as well as a research hub for leaders in the fields of regenerative organize agriculture, sustainable food systems, climate change, education, and public health.”

The six, main goals of the Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education are:

“Supporting K-12 students through education, policy and community engagement, coupled with Alice Waters’ vision to provide a free, organic, delicious school lunch for every student in this country.
Offering professional development opportunities for educators in garden and kitchen classrooms.
Fostering curricular development to support food-based learning and environmental stewardship across disciplines and at all levels of study.
Designing systems-level improvements through the interdisciplinary research of regenerative organic agriculture, carbon-reducing climate solutions, environmental education and public health scholarship.
Leading interactive, hands-on projects that support the sharing of best practices among K-12 educators, UC Davis faculty and students, and farmers, growers, and ranchers who commit to sustainable practices for the land and their workers.
Hosting conferences, summits, and other public gatherings that bring together UC Davis faculty, students, researchers and other experts to address pressing challenges facing food systems and the planet.”

The UC Davis press release states, “Together, we will shift the paradigm for how we think about food, create new solutions for feeding our communities healthfully and equitably, and inspire a new generation of change makers to continue this work.”

Alice Waters is also collaborating with the University of California administration to ensure that the food served on UC campuses is sourced directly from local ranches and organic and regenerative farms. She discussed this initiative and Our Pledge to Public Education for Children & Farmers in a March 27, 2019 presentation, “We Are What We Eat: Teaching Slow Food Values in a Fast Food Culture,” at Arizona State University’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation. As Waters stated in her conclusion:

When schools and even universities change the way that they buy and source food, it sends a message into the world that it is possible to rely on local, sustainable farmers everywhere. I call this school-supported agriculture…and this is how we envision making change in the state of California…I think that when this begins to happen, the values of the farmers will come right through the cafeteria door. I call this a delicious revolution.

NOTES:

[1] Panisse appears as a character in Marcel Pagnol’s film trilogy, “Marius,” “Fanny,” and “Cesar.”

[2] The Chez Panisse Foundation was renamed the Edible Schoolyard Project in 2011. For an explanation, see the project’s Frequently Asked Questions website.

[3] Alice Waters is the author or co-author of the following 16 books, several of which include illustrations and/or photographs: Chez Panisse Café Cookbook (1982), Chez Panisse Vegetables (1982), Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook (1982), Chez Panisse Pasta, Pizza & Calzone (1984), Fanny at Chez Panisse: A Child's Restaurant Adventures with 46 Recipes (1997), California Fresh Harvest: A Seasonal Journey Through Northern California (2001), Chez Panisse Cooking (2001), Chez Panisse Fruit (2002), The Art of Simple Food (2007), Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea (2008), In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn by Heart (2010), 40 Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering (2011), The Art of Simple Food II: Recipes, Flavor, and Inspiration from the New Kitchen Garden: A Cookbook (2013), My Pantry: Homemade Ingredients That Make Simple Meals Your Own: A Cookbook (2015), Fanny in France: Travel Adventures of a Chef’s Daughter, with Recipes (2016), Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook (2017), and We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto (2021).

[4] Alice Waters has received a wide variety of awards for her professional achievements, advocacy, and humanitarian initiatives. These awards include three James Beard Foundation Awards (1992 Best Chef in America, Best Restaurant in America for Chez Panisse, and 1997 Humanitarian of the Year), the 2004 National Audubon Society’s 2004 Rachel Carson Award Honoree, 2008 Global Environmental Citizen Award, French Légion d’Honneur in 2009, The Wall Street Journal Magazine’s 2013 Humanitarian Innovator of the Year; and a 2014 National Humanities Medal presented by President Barack Obama. Waters was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007 and inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2008, American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2014, and National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2017.

[5] For information and resources on organic and regenerative agriculture see, for example, the website for the Rodale Institute.

[6] For historical background on the Slow Food movement, see Carlo Petrini, William McCuaig (translator), Slow Food: The Case for Taste (Columbia University Press, 2003), for which Alice Waters wrote the forward. This is the first of several books that Carlo Petrini has written about Slow Food. See, for example, Carlo Petrini, John Irving (translator), Food & Freedom: How the Slow Food Movement Is Changing the World Through Gastronomy (Rizzoli Ex Libris, 2015).

[7] See the Slow Food USA website for information on Slow Food activities in the U.S., how to subscribe to The Snail and The Food Chain newsletters, and the Slow Food movement in your location. You may also contact the national office in Brooklyn by phone (718 260 8000) or email at info@slowfoodusa.org

[8] Alice Waters with Bob Carrau and Cristina Mueller, We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto (Penguin Books, 2022), pages 10 - 11. She discusses her book in a July 9, 2021 virtual event, “Alice Waters -- We Are What We Eat,” presented by the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington D.C., Harvard Bookstore, and Books & Present in Miami. Alice Waters is introduced by Lissa Muscatine, a former Washington Post reporter and the co-owner of Politics and Prose, and interviewed by Kim Severson, a New York Times national food correspondent.

[9] For an interactive website on how the modern, industrial food system is contributing to climate change, see: Kirk Semple, Adam Westbrook and Jonah M. Kessel: “Meet the People Getting Paid to Kill Our Planet,” New York Times, February 2, 2022. See also Sonia Fernandez, UC Santa Barbara, “The Environmental Footprint of Food,” University of California News, October 27, 2022.

[10] Allison Aubrey discusses recent studies on the relationship between diet and human health in the U.S. in her article, “The U.S. diet is deadly. Here are 7 ideas to get Americans eating healthier,” National Public Radio (NPR), August 31, 2022. She also relates how these studies inspired a Biden administration conference scheduled for September 28, 2022. Aubrey explains: “The data are stark: the typical American diet is shortening the lives of many Americans. Diet-related deaths outrank deaths from smoking, and about half of U.S. deaths from heart disease –nearly 900 deaths a day – are linked to poor diet. The pandemic highlighted the problem, with much worse outcomes for people with obesity and other diet-related diseases… Now, there's growing momentum to tackle this problem. The Biden administration will hold the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on September 28th, and will announce a new national strategy. This comes more than 50 years after a landmark White House conference which helped launch today's major federal food assistance programs.” For an article on the conference, see: Alan Rappeport, Biden Administration Unveils Plan Aiming to End Hunger in U.S. by 2030,” New York Times, September 28, 2022. In describing Biden administration initiatives to eliminate hunger and promote nutritious food, Rappeport states: “More healthful eating was also a major priority during the Obama administration. Michelle Obama, the first lady, led the ‘Let’s Move’ initiative, which aimed to eliminate childhood obesity by revamping the way American children eat and play, and by reshaping school lunches, playgrounds and medical checkups.” For a report on the conference see, Ximena Bustillo, “Key takeways from Biden's conference on food and nutrition in America,” National Public Radio (NPR), September 28, 2022. See also, Dani Blum, “What is a ‘Healthy’ Food? The F.D.A. Wants to Change the Definition,” New York Times, September 28, 2022 and Bryce Cover, “I Can’t Imagine Who Would Think It’s OK to Take Food Away From Kids?,” New York Times, December 27, 2022. For a detailed account of how unhealthy aspects of the American diet are being exported abroad, see: Andrew Jacobs and Matt Richtel. Photographs by William Daniels, “How Big Business Got Brazil Hooked on Junk Food,” New York Times, September 16, 2017.

[11] Alice Waters with Bob Carrau and Cristina Mueller, We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto (Penguin Books, 2022), Introduction, page 5. For critiques of the modern industrial food system and the sustainable alternatives, see also publications by Frances Moore Lappé, Wendell Barry, Eric Schlosser, Anna Lappé, Mark Bittman, Vandana Shiva, Lester Brown, Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, Amy Bentley and David Mas Masumoto. In the first page of her Introduction, Waters writes, “I respected the back-to-the-land movement and how it emphasized growing your own food without chemicals or pesticides; we had all read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and, later, Frances Moore Lappé’s book Diet for a Small Planet.”

On April 21, 2023, I attended an NYU Earth Month event, Diet for a Small Planet: 50 Years On with Frances Moore Lappe, which was organized by the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. The panel also featured Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and a founder of NYU Steinhardt’s Food Studies program in 1996; Amy Bentley, Professor of Food Studies in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; and David Kanter, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the NYU College of Arts and Sciences. You may view a recording of the on-site and virtual event at Diet for a Small Planet: 50 Years On with Frances Moore Lappe. For initiatives relating to sustainable food at NYU, see also the NYU Office of Sustainability.

[12] Alice Waters has related how she learned about French cooking by watching Julia Child’s PBS television program, The French Chef, which first aired in 1963. See also, the PBS, Julia Child: Cooking With Master Chefs, July 10, 1994 episode 16, Salad With Alice Waters. The April 14, 2022 MasterClass article, “California Cuisine Guide: 5 Traits of California Cuisine,” describes these traits as: “Chef-driven, fresh local ingredients, international influences, restrained preparation, and seasonality.” (Alice Waters is a MasterClass instructor. See, for example, her MasterClass course, Alice Waters Teaches the Art of Home Cooking.) For a historical account, see: Joyce Goldstein (Author), Dore Brown (Contributor), Inside the California Food Revolution: Thirty Years That Changed Our Culinary Consciousness (University of California Press, 2013). For more information on the multifaceted origins of California cuisine, see Korsha Wilson’s November 28, 2022 New York Times review, “The Chef Tanya Holland Chronicles the Journey of ‘California Soul,’” in which she discusses Tanya Holland’s most recent book, Tanya Holland’s California Soul: Recipe’s From a Culinary Journal West (Ten Speed Press, 2022).

[13] Paul Freedman includes Chez Panisse in Ten Restaurants That Changed America (Liveright, 2016). For the New York Times review of Freedman’s book, see: Tejal Rao, “The Magnificent 10: Restaurants That Changed How We Eat,” New York Times, September 20 2016.

[14] For projections about the future of agriculture see, for example, the May 2022 issue of Bon Appétit: The Future of Food, which focuses on climate change impacts on our food supply and how we can transition to a more sustainable diet. Details about this issue were posted April 26, 2022 on the Condé Nast website, Introducing Bon Appétit's Future of Food issue.

[15] See, for example, the website for the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter Farm and Food Committee.

[16] Alice Waters recalls her family’s victory garden in New Jersey in her publications and speaking engagements; for example, the December 1, 2022 Saveur podcast, Place Settings by Saveur. See the introduction and listen to the recording, “Alice Waters On Feeding People an Idea and Victory-Meets-Guerilla Gardening in Berkeley.” For an analysis of how the U.S. government encouraged people to grow vegetables and fruits in victory gardens during World War I and II, see: Jennifer Steinhauer, “Victory Gardens Were More About Solidarity Than Survival,” New York Times Magazine, July 15, 2020 and the Smithsonian Libraries website, Cultivating American’s Gardens, “Gardening for the Common Good: Victory Gardens.” Urban farms and community gardens are now a key feature of urban sustainability. For large rooftop farms in NYC see, for example, The Farm at the Javits Center and the Brooklyn Grange urban farms in Sunset Park, Brooklyn; Long Island City, and at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. See also the GrowNYC Governors Island Teaching Garden and Earth Matter Compost Learning Center on Governors Island. Rachel Wharton describes the increased importance of this teaching garden during the coronavirus pandemic in her article, “How This N.Y. Island Went From Tourist Hot Spot to Emergency Garden,” New York Times, July 23, 2020/updated September 17, 2020. The Rise & Root Farm at 168 Meadow Avenue, Chester, New York also sells food in NYC. Several NYC apartment buildings include rooftop farms and/or community gardens. For a historical perspective on the relationship of food to cities, see: Carolyn Steel, TEDGlobal 2009, “How Food Shapes Our Cities.”

[17] For the location of green markets in NYC, see Grow NYC. See also the NYC Urban Agriculture resources website for information about NYC’s community gardens, urban farms, food policies, school gardens, and organics collection services.

[18] For more information about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), see Lilly Zaballos, “What’s a CSA? A Guide to Community Supported Agriculture,” Hunter College New York City Food Policy Center, April 14, 2021.

[19] The Center for Good Food Purchasing provides information and resources about good food purchasing initiatives throughout the U.S. NYC government food policies are described on the official NYC Food Policy website, which includes a Good Food Purchasing website that currently features a “Letter from the Director, Kate MacKenzie, MS RD, Executive Director, Mayor's Office of Food Policy.” See also NY City Council Int. 517-2022 and New York State S7534/A8580. These NYC and NYS bills, which relate to government procurement policies, remain in committee as of May 2023. As indicated on the NYC Government Food Policy Programs School Food website, all NYC public school students receive a free breakfast and lunch. On the importance of universal, free public school meals, see: Bryce Cover, “I Can’t Imagine Who Would Think It’s Okay to Take Food Away From Kids,” New York Times Opinion Guest Essay, December 27, 2022. For more information on food policies in NYC, see the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute. See also the NYC government April 17, 2023 press release, “Mayor Adams Commits to Reducing City’s Food-Based Emissions by 33 Percent by 2030 After Releasing new Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Incorporating Emissions From Food.” This 2023 annual NYC Greenhouse Gas Inventories report is the first to incorporate emissions from food purchased by the NYC government. (The three main sources of NYC's greenhouse gas emissions are buildings, transportation, and food.)

[20] For information on the indigenous food sovereignty movement in New York State see, for example, Kevin Noble Maillard, “On Remote Farms and in City Gardens, A Native American Movement Grows,” New York Times, August 26, 2022. Maillard discusses the multifaceted activities of the Onondaga Nation Farm located near Syracuse, which includes participation in Braiding the Sacred, an intertribal network of indigenous corn growers. See also, Sean Sherman with Beth Dooley (Contributor), The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen (University of Minnesota Press, 2017). You may listen to Sam Briger’s October 24, 2022 interview with Chef Sean Sherman on the WHYY, Philadelphia Fresh Air radio program, which is broadcast nationally by National Public Radio (NPR). For information on a conservation initiative related to indigenous food traditions, see Jim Robbins, photographs by Louise Johns, “Where the Buffalo Could Roam,” New York Times, Science Times, January 11, 2023. The article states: “Between 30 million and 60 million bison once roamed parts of the United States, primarily in the Great Plains. They were a “keystone” species in a complex ecological web, creating a cascade of environmental conditions that benefited countless other species.” The restoration of buffalo is especially important given the climate and biodiversity crises, which are interrelated. As Robbins emphasizes: “Intact grasslands are very productive for biodiversity. In part because of the loss of bison and other megafauna, intact grassland biomes are now among the most endangered in the world, and the numbers of many species that depend on them have collapsed.”

[21] For additional information on sustainable agriculture and educational initiatives in New York State, see the Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE), which “connects communities with research from Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and the College of Human Ecology.” The Cornell Cooperative Extension includes websites on topics, such as: Agriculture & Food Systems, Farm to School in New York State, and Environment. Cornell Cooperative Extension offices are located throughout New York State. You may find your local Cornell Cooperative Extension here. See, for example, the Cornell Cooperative Extension New York City website.

[22] For books on the Edible Schoolyard, see: Alice Waters with Daniel Duane and photographs by David Liittschwager, Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea (Chronicle Books, 2008) and Margo Crabtree, The Edible Schoolyard (Learning in the Real World, 1999 and Center for Ecoliteracy, 2016). You may also view the February 20, 2009 Chronicle Books video, Alice Waters and the Edible Schoolyard. See also, Diane Stanley, author, and Jessie Hartland, illustrator, Alice Waters Cooks Up a Food Revolution, (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2022). For a review of this book, which is recommended for children ages 4 to 8, see Jenny Rosenstrach, “A Cooks Tour: 3 Picture Books About Famous Foodies,” New York Times, Book Review, January 28, 2022.

[23] For University of California – Berkeley educational initiatives to promote sustainable food production and consumption, see also the Berkeley Food Institute. As indicated on its website: “The Berkeley Food Institute strives to transform food systems to expand access to healthy, affordable food and promote sustainable and equitable food production. We empower new leaders with the capacity to cultivate diverse, just, resilient, and healthy food systems.”

[24] In the preceding year, former University of California President Janet Napolitano announced the University of California Carbon Neutrality Initiative, which “commits UC to emitting net zero greenhouse gases from its buildings and vehicle fleet by 2025, something no other major university system has done.”

For my Sierra Atlantic articles on related topics, see:

“Key Resources on Recent Climate Change Reports”

“Key Resources on Climate Change Reports: Part II”

“The Drawdown Project to Reverse Global Warming”

“The Social Cost of Carbon & Why It Matters”

“Ecological Footprints and One Planet Living”

“Five Years of Activism: NYC Commits to Fossil Fuel Divestment”

“State Must Pass Divestment Act Targeting NYS Common Retirement Fund”

“NYC’s Green New Deal”

“Initiatives to Reduce Plastic Pollution”

“Carbon Footprints and Life-cycle Assessments - Educational Resources”

“Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature - Educational Resources”